Welcome to Litsy!

This book is hilarious and terrifying. It‘s brilliant and absolute nonsense. I freaking LOVED it. Jack and Babette (4th wife, 5th marriage) and their blended family experience a toxic event, but it represents the larger mass of white noise that is constantly surrounding us. My #bookspin for February (🫣) #BarnesNobleChallenge: #NationalBookAwardWinner AND 🥁 231/1,001 #1001Books ALSO, Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig movie adaptation? I‘m in.

This was very very good. Part of my reading 20 books by Black women challenge this year.

( I have to research and pick the book on purpose. I‘ve read ARCS buddy reads etc by Black women but I don‘t count them..)

Here‘s a great article that describes it. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/rebirth-of-venus

This was a California Book Club pick a couple of months ago. I tried to read it, but I find reading poetry---especially a whole book of it---to be a lot of work for not enough reward. Beautiful (and sometimes devastating) imagery, but it just didn't work for me.

Thanks to #ReadYourSign I read this amazing book of poetry with my ruling planet in the title: Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis. Part Two is made of “...titles, catalog entries, or exhibit descriptions of Western art objects in which a black female figure is present...”

#poemsbeforephones

Things have been hectic over here and I haven‘t logged into Litsy much, but I‘ve continued to read poetry every morning before opening up my phone. Today I finished the tagged book. It‘s a mixed bag, with lots of intense poetry that isn‘t really Good morning! material. But I thought the epic poem in the center using the titles of works of art was incredible. I‘ve posted a portion of that poem here.

For the last two days I‘ve been in the most incredible section of this collection. I‘ve posted here some of the guidelines the poet created for herself and the resulting poetry has been incredibly moving (I‘ll post some tomorrow). It‘s where the title of the collection comes from.

Anyway, #poemsbeforephones still going strong. I also love reading all of the poetry y‘all tag me in—I get more poetry before I have to do actual phone stuff 😊

Red three poems this morning—including a four part ode to the 1978 film The Wiz—and settled on this one that really resonates with me.

#poemsbeforephones

Wish I had the tech savvy/appropriate app to put this poem side-by-side with the image that inspired it. But if you google “from Harlem to Hitler” you‘ll see it.

#poemsbeforephones

#poemsbeforephones

This collection is pretty intense for first thing in the morning, but wow. Next time I might choose nature writing or some Mary Oliver to balance me out because some of these poems are blowing my mind 🤯

#poemsbeforephones

One reason I haven‘t been posting each morning after I read a poem is because once I finish reading, I‘m inspired to do all the other morning-type things I can do without my phone. I go through my whole morning routine without my phone and I‘m loving it. Don‘t know how long I can keep it up, but I‘m grateful for the peace poetry before technology has brought me. ✌🏽